1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus having an ink jet recording head for recording by ejecting ink onto a recording medium, and a recovery device for recovering the function of the recording head.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional ink jet recording apparatuses for recording by ejecting ink from nozzles, it is necessary to place a cap on an ink jet head when not in use because ink on a nozzle surface is likely to dry and solidify causing an ink ejection failure. In order to recover from an ink ejection failure or prevent an ink ejection failure, there is a need to perform maintenance of an ink jet head. There are several maintenance methods for ink jet heads, for example, a purging method in which nozzle clogging is eliminated by, for example, drawing dry ink from an ink jet head nozzle, or a wiping method in which an ink-wet nozzle surface is wiped. As a device for facilitating such an ink jet head maintenance operation, U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,591 discloses a maintenance device for an ink jet recording apparatus, which immediately performs the capping of a nozzle and the subsequent ink drawing at freely selectable timings by operation of a lever in one direction.
However, if the aforementioned maintenance device is incorporated into a head recovery device, the operability improves, but unnecessary ink consumption may result through improper operation.